Austrotheta, Criscione & Hallan & Puillandre & Fedosov, 2021

Criscione, Francesco, Hallan, Anders, Puillandre, Nicolas & Fedosov, Alexander, 2021, Where the snails have no name: a molecular phylogeny of Raphitomidae (Neogastropoda: Conoidea) uncovers vast unexplored diversity in the deep seas of temperate southern and eastern Australia, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 191, pp. 961-1000 : 985-986

AUSTROTHETA GEN. NOV.

Z o o B a n k r e g i s t r a t i o n: u r n: l s i d: z o o b a n k. org:act: 1FCE9160-3FA0-44F9-89DE-46A6FA46ACA7.

Type species: Austrotheta crassidentata . OD, herein.

Etymology: The name is composed of the Latin auster, south, for its discovery in the Southern Hemisphere, and Θ, θ, the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, a name given to members of the genus Theta possibly because of a similarity in shell shape. The gender is feminine.

Diagnosis

Shell ( Fig. 3H) fusiform, semitranslucent to opaque. Protoconch multispiral; sculpture of arcuate cordlets on upper portion of whorls and diagonally cancellate below. Teleoconch with distinctly shouldered to rounded whorls, bearing sharp opisthocline axial ribs in early to median whorls; last whorl evenly convex below narrow subsutural ramp, with undulating striae throughout its height. Siphonal canal long and straight. Aperture wide, pyriform, about half of shell length. Anal sinus shallow, U-shaped. Eyes minute. Radula ( Fig. 6H) of thick, cylindrical hypodermic teeth, bearing two weak distal barbs and with short adapical opening. Base broad, with extremely coarse external sculpture. Ligament large.